Behind me, I heard the other vampire giggle. It wasn’t much louder than the sound of the shot. Max’s gun had a silencer.
“Inside,” he directed me with another wave of the gun. “Or the next round goes in your leg.”
With my fists covering the rapidly bleeding hole in my gut, I staggered into the house. As soon as Max closed the door behind us, he fired again, striking me in the thigh.
I’d screamed at the second shot, which knocked me off my feet and sent me sprawling onto the floor.
“It was too much fun to resist,” Max smirked, then waved the gun, this time at my mother. “You make one more sound and she gets the next slug.”
Max would love to shoot my mother. It hadn’t escaped my notice that she had a dull, glazed look on her face. Max had green-eyed her into compliance. The thought of how terrified she must have been to open her door and see my father there almost made my rage match the pain in pure intensity.
But that was short-lived. Waves of pain, nausea, and dizziness assailed me. Max might have missed arteries or vital organs, but in my current condition, I wouldn’t be able to fight off him and the other vampire, plus rescue her. It was only because of being half vampire that I was even still conscious at all.
Bones. I’d often teased him about being paranoid over my safety, but it looked like the joke was on me. Sure, if I didn’t show up at the compound later, he would be worried. Probably enough to come straight here, but from Max’s expression, he’d arrive too late.
“You should have killed me when you had the chance,” Max said, staring down at me. “Bet now you wish you’d done that instead of marrying Bones back at Ian’s that night.”
Even if this was it for me—and I wasn’t ready to concede that by a long shot—I couldn’t bring myself to agree.
“Have I ever mentioned how much I hate you, Max?” I managed to grit out. Maybe I could stall him. Get him pissed enough to want to take his time killing me.
The other vampire laughed. “She has such spirit,” he said, eyeing me even as he stroked my mother’s hair. “What a waste.”
Recognition dawned about where I’d seen the black-haired vampire before. He was the one who’d gotten away from Chuck E. Cheese’s that day!
“You,” I said.
He smiled. “Nice to see you again, too.”
Max set the rocket launcher down, but that didn’t do me nearly as much good now as it would have a few minutes ago.
“Calibos,” he said, “if my daughter moves, kill her mother.”
With that grim directive, Max disappeared into the kitchen. I kept applying pressure to the hole in my gut, since it was bleeding worse than my leg. Goddamn you, Max, I thought through the pain. I’ll see you dead even if it’s the last thing I do.
And from the looks of it, it probably would be.
My mother still stared sightlessly ahead. Aside from that, to my relief, she didn’t look hurt. Calibos, as Max called the other vampire, let his hand wander down the front of her shirt to squeeze her breast. A low growl came from me that made him grin.
“Temper, temper,” he purred, letting his hand creep lower.
Max came out of the kitchen and glared at Calibos. “Not her,” he said curtly. “If there’s time, you can have Cat, but Justina’s mine.”
Oh dear God. Renewed determination surged through me. I couldn’t let Max live, even if I ended up killing me and my mother in the process of taking him down. I knew my mother. She’d rather be dead than raped by a vampire, especially Max.
“I think it’s time to wake her up, don’t you?” my father asked me in that same chipper tone. He handed his gun to Calibos with directions to shoot me if I twitched, then went over to my mother. Max cut his thumb on one of the four knives he’d returned from the kitchen with and held it to her mouth.
“Rise and shine, Justina,” he said, rubbing the blood on her lips.
My mother licked it, blinked once—and then screamed.
Max’s hand clamped over her mouth. I tried to push the pain back enough to concentrate on a plan. Come on, Cat, think! There’s got to be a way out of this.
“Hello, beautiful,” Max said, putting his face right next to my mother’s. “I’m going to take my hand away, but for every time you scream, I’m going to cut something off our daughter. Understand?”
My mother’s gaze flicked to me, widened, and then she nodded. Max dropped his hand.
“That’s better. Now, to make sure kitty here doesn’t spoil the fun…”
Max walked over to me, still holding those knives. I braced myself, wanting to grab for those blades like I’d wanted nothing before it. But Calibos had the gun pointed at me and my mother within biting distance. I’d make my stand, but this wasn’t the time.